If you have recurring back or joint pain, you know how much it can interfere with living how you want. You may struggle to walk, lift, sit, or even lay because of the discomfort. At I Am Total Wellness Studios our doctors take a whole-body approach to your treatment, including soft tissue manipulation techniques, to encourage the most effective spine and joint manipulations and ensure the longest lasting results.
Benefits of Myofascial Release
In addition to muscles, tendons, and ligaments, your body contains a type of connective tissue known as fascia. The fascia covers these other tissues and weaves their way through them like a membranous web. This arrangement means that when fascia develops problems, the underlying tissues often suffer the effects.
Myofascial pain syndrome may stem from issues such as poor posture or improper spinal alignment that place your soft tissues under unnatural stressors. The fascia may tighten up in an attempt to protect the underline tissues from the pressure, limiting muscle motion painfully. Your tissues may also develop painful knots called trigger points. These knots of tight tissue can pinch nerves, sending referred pain to remote areas such as the extremities.
Myofascial release offers a drug-free, non-invasive technique for relaxing these areas of tightness. In this form of massage, your practitioner feels for knots or hard spots that need breaking up. Targeted manipulation of these areas can force the tissue to unclench, freeing your body to work as it should and easing referred pain symptoms.
Benefits of Trigger Point Therapy
Trigger point therapy is a specialized type of massage therapy that targets your muscular and fascial trigger points -- the locations of the origin of your pain. Often you will see referred pain as a result of these adhesions which your doctor will locate through a thorough exam. These trigger points build around nerve clusters and stimulate nerve pain and other nerve-related symptoms which can spread beyond the initial site of pain. For instance, you may have lower back pain as a result of muscle or fascial knots in your glute or thigh. Therefore, the doctor focuses on releasing these areas so your treatment will remain in proper alignment once you walk out our door.
Combining Chiropractic Care With Soft Tissue Manipulation
Chiropractic care and soft tissue release work hand in hand to provide lasting relief of your aches and pains. Chiropractic adjustments correct any alignment problems that make you more vulnerable to tightness and pain. Between chiropractic adjustment sessions, ongoing soft tissue work such as at-home stretching, foam rolling, or massages can keep your tissues from tightening up again and pulling your posture back out of alignment.